Indian Wars in the West

The first Native Indian battles began in the 1400 and 1500’s, but the most significant battles occurred after 1830. The Nez Pearce Indians were a tribe who fought against the U. S. colonization, and for a while they were led by Chief Joseph. Joseph was born in Wallowa Valley, Oregon territory, on March 3^rd, 1840, as a chief he was convinced to move his tribe onto a reservation, but after some soldiers were killed, there was far too much tension, and Joseph started moving his tribe back North. He planned to take them all the way up into Canada, but just forty miles from the border, he was caught in a state of exhaustion from the 1,400 mile trek. After the battle between his tired warriors and the soldiers, he said:

“I am tired of fighting”(1) he also said “Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohoolhoolzote is dead. The old men are dead. It is the young men who say, ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. ’He who led the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are—perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.” (2)

After the surrender, Chief Joseph and the Nez Pearce Tribe were moved around a bit, but they ended up in the Pacific Northwest, many had died from disease and battle throughout their journey. Chief Joseph died on September 21, 1886, and he was buried in Washington D.C. Chief Joseph is remembered as a brave chief of the Nez Pearce and he is credited with one of the greatest large scale military retreats in history.

 Chief Geronimo was born in June, of 1829, in No-Dolyohn Canyon, Mexico, and he was a brave war chief who evaded the military for many years. Geronimo was chief of the Apache and a skilled hunter, he led the Bedonkohe, the smallest group within the Chiricahua tribe. Surrounded by Mexicans and other tribes such as the Comanches and Navajo tribes, Geronimo raided these neighbors and after a while, there was a bounty of $25 for the scalp of an Apache child. Even with this horrible authorization, Geronimo continued to raid adjacent tribes. By the time chief Geronimo was 17 years old, he had already succeeded in engineering several victorious raids. It was around this time that he was married to Alope, and they had 3 children together. Sadly, though, one night when Geronimo returned from trading he found his wife and three children dead, they had been killed by Mexican soldiers, this devastated Geronimo and he was determined to have his revenge on them. He gathered 200 warriors and caught the Mexicans who were responsible for the murder of his family. After pouring out his wrath on those men, he caused similar trouble for the Government of Mexico for the next 10 years. In 1850, Mexico became a U. S. territory and gold was found in the area, so people were rushing into that region to obtain it and as a result Chief Geronimo continued to raid them. But everything dramatically changed when Geronimo’s father-in-law influenced him to surrender, which would result with the Apache Tribe being placed on a reservation. But his father-in-law died shortly after the agreement, and the U. S. changed the terms and placed the Apache on a reservation far from where their homeland was located. The settlers instead were given the land to settle, needless to say, this angered Chief Geronimo and he caused a great deal of trouble with the United States Government, but was eventually caught and forced to live in the undesirable reservation. Finally though, he escaped in September, 1881, and continued his battles against the United States. By 1886, Geronimo surrendered after fighting for 5 years, and once more was in captivity. He later had regrets about surrendering, but he was never able to be free again. He did, however, become a bit of a celebrity at the end of his life as people became interested in the legendary war chief. Both Geronimo and Joseph were chiefs who did their best to lead their people and both of them, were oppressed by government and other tribes, but I admire how determined they were to protect what belonged to them no matter how many greedy settlers or treacherous governments tried to rob them of their homes.